Frustrated by inaction in Congress, a growing number of states are trying to reduce the rising tide of junked TVs, computers and other electronics that have become one of the nation's fastest-growing waste streams. Nineteen states have passed laws requiring the recycling of old electronics,......

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday issued a news release announcing it had cited 14 municipalities in Pennsylvania and Maryland for stormwater violations.On that list were five Lancaster County municipalities — Akron and Terre Hill boroughs and East Earl, East Donegal an......

Federal officials, acting on President Barrack Obama's recent executive order to get serious about cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay, announced a draft strategy Monday that makes Lancaster County a linchpin in the plan.Local farms, sewage plants and runoff from urban and suburban landscap......

Almost a year ago, farmers here and nationwide were outraged over reports that the federal government was considering a "cow tax" aimed at reducing methane gas produced by their livestock.The plan to tax cows for burping or flatulence was fodder for late-night talk shows, but it ......

Despite national and state efforts to reduce air pollution, Lancaster County is one of 31 metropolitan areas in the United States to have unhealthy levels of soot, officials say.High levels of fine particulate matter, or soot, "can cause a number of serious health problems, including ......

Ninety-six times last year, during summer rains or snowmelts, raw sewage and industrial wastewater from in and around the city were piped directly into the Conestoga River without being treated. Some 943 million gallons of combined sewage and rainwater were discharged into the river and even......

Correction — The article below, posted on LancasterOnline Saturday, misstated U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standards for tritium. Agency rules allow no more than 20,000 picocuries per liter in drinking water....

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has reached an $80,000 settlement with Lancaster landlord Tony Papadimitriou for his failure to disclose known lead-paint hazards to tenants in his city-owned properties. Settlement terms dictate Papadimitriou must pay an $8,000 fine to the EPA and th......

Darren Parmer is passionate about his work. In response to a question about the impact lead paint can have on children, the city's certified lead-risk assessor leans forward in his chair and begins, "Now you got me going" before delivering a rapid-fire answer. His response......

A local landlord has settled with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over violations of federal law that requires disclosure of lead-based paint hazards to residential tenants.Tony J. Papadimitriou, who owns several residential properties in Lancaster, agreed to pay $8,000 for failin......

"Extensive" testing shows the air outside Locust Grove Mennonite School in East Lampeter Township is safe, the state Department of Environmental Protection says. Air testing had been ordered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in March after a study by the newspaper USA Today listed the......

Don't look now, but President Obama just nationalized the Chesapeake Bay.The president this week issued an executive order putting the federal government in charge of efforts to clean the bay. That overturns a 30-year system whereby the states around the bay, along with the federal Env......

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Last week, according to a press release, the Environmental Protection Agency launched "Pick 5 for the Environment," encouraging the public to commit to taking at least five actions to protect the earth.Some of the EPA's suggested actions:
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Did you know there is an 80-pound gorilla sitting in your garage (or shed)?Equipped with wheels and a long handle, it probably has a two-stroke engine that emits a sound most of us have come to associate with warmer months.The lawnmower is a part of Americana. Many people relish the......

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has announced a plan  to test air quality at schools nationwide to determine if students are at risk from airborne pollutants.But whether that testing will include schools in Lancaster County is not known.EPA administrator Lisa Jackso......

Concerned about toxic pollutants falling on playgrounds, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will require Pennsylvania and other states to test the air quality near schools. At least one local school is already being tested because of those pollution concerns: Locust Grove, a campus of ......

Correction — Ann Breslin, project manager for the Strube Inc. environmental cleanup project, is employed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Her place of employment was misidentified in the article below, posted on LancasterOnline S......

State officials said recent air-quality tests gave reason to doubt USA Today's claim that many schools are "toxic hot spots."The state Department of Environmental Protection has cast doubt on a newspaper's report that labeled hundreds of schools in America — includi......

The phones stopped ringing for custom home construction about eight months ago at Pusey & Raffensperger Builders.The downturn in upscale housing hit the Lititz homebuilder early — months before the economy dropped off elsewhere.Even remodeling work has been slow. What jobs......

State Sen. Mike Brubaker has been immersed in the campaign to clean up the Chesapeake Bay for many years. Now, he's really rolling up his sleeves. Brubaker was named Thursday as Chesapeake Bay Commission vice chairman and leader of the Pennsylvania delegation to the tri-state ......

On Monday, Manheim Township commissioners approved a plan that could pave the way for the widening of Fruitville Pike and the construction of (drumroll!) another shopping center.I cover Manheim Township and have reported on the project, so I don't want to comment too much.Howeve......

A cluster of schools near some of the most pristine farmland in Lancaster County may be harboring hidden health hazards, according to USA Today.In a special report running this week, the newspaper identified Locust Grove Mennonite School as one of 435 schools in America that might be expos......

For 33 years, Don Ranck only worried about two products from his cow herd: milk to sell and manure to dispose of.But the owner of Verdant View Farm in Paradise Township fears that in the near future he and other farmers may have to worry about another emission from their animals — gr......

Franklin & Marshall College officials have taken exception to statements made at a community meeting Tuesday regarding the relocation of a portion of Norfolk Southern's rail yard to a former dump site.More than 100 people turned out Tuesday night to listen to a presentation by The ......

Some residents of Barrcrest and School Lane Hills aren't giving up their fight to keep the Dillerville rail yard away from their homes.More than 100 people turned out Tuesday night at Grace Baptist Church on Marietta Avenue to listen to a presentation by The Rail Road Action and Adviso......

A former supervisor of Penn Township's sewage treatment plant is accused of falsifying data and altering wastewater samples submitted to state environmental officials.J. Scott Shank, former superintendent of Northwestern Lancaster County Water and Sewer Authority, was arraigned Thursda......

Vegetable oil can be used for more than just cooking. Just ask Michael Hoy.Hoy and eight of his friends bought a school bus on eBay in 2006 and rode it across the country.Hoy said it was an excellent trip, except for one thing: the $3,000 he and his friends had to pay for diesel fue......

Southern Lancaster County residents will be able to express their concerns about a natural gas pipeline proposed to cut through the area at a meeting Tuesday with project developers.U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts set up the meeting on the AES Corp. natural gas pipeline project and will bring together......

You're not imagining it: Those ozone air pollution warnings out of Harrisburg have been coming faster and more furiously this year. But, no, the air itself has not grown that much hotter or goopier. "The [pollution] standards have been made more stringent," said Kevi......

Suddenly, corn ethanol is no longer the darling in the nation's desperate search for an energy alternative to oil. In recent weeks, Republican presidential candidate John McCain, Gov. Ed Rendell and U.S. Rep. Joe Pitts have taken actions to slow what had been a corn ethanol bandwagon....

Officials at Franklin & Marshall College on Thursday told about 200 residents that there are no increased environmental risks in moving the Dillerville rail yard to their neighborhood.The residents, many from the Old School Lane Hills and Barrcrest neighborhoods, also were told that th......

A local environmental consultant tested toxic leachate oozing out of Lancaster County Central Park last week. Prognosis? Murky. Deb Werner, who handles public relations for the Department of Parks and Recreation, said she had no information on the study conducted by GemChem Inc., an enviro......

While Lititz Borough's water sources are back at full capacity, signs of an E. coli problem have been discovered.••• Water sources for Lititz Borough customers returned to full capacity in April, three months after......

They often spend their entire lives in small cages, stacked one on top of the other.They endure intense heat and cold, rarely get medical care and never get any exercise. Some lose the ability to walk because they never leave their cages.Vocal chords are crushed with a metal pipe so......

By not fixing those dripping faucets, homeowners could be watching their money go down the drain.Educating yourself about water conservation is one of the first steps to stopping that money from washing away.Simple things, such as replacing old toilets or going to the......

Tossing a pair of batteries into the kitchen trash can can't be that big of a deal. What's wrong with pouring a cupful of used paint thinner down the drain?I even remember dropping an old glass thermometer or two on the bathroom floor and watching, and apparently breathing in, some......

Residents fighting a plan to move a rail yard to the edge of their neighborhoods hope they got their group's cause on TRAC.The Railroad Action Committee, which currently is seven homeowners in Lancaster and East Hempfield townships, held its first public meeting Tuesday to inform neighbors......

Strube Inc., the Marietta-based firm ordered in January to remove radioactive aircraft dials from several of its Lancaster County warehouses, has been ordered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take over cleanup operations at its headquarters.An order issued Wednesday by EPA re......

Lawmakers in Harrisburg will try to figure out this week how to keep municipalities from being bankrupted by the cost of cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay.Under a federal mandate, municipalities in the bay's watershed, which includes the Susquehanna River and its tributaries, have just tw......

Troy McBride was soaking up the sun at Elizabethtown College's "solar cabin" last week and talking about the weak link in renewable energy systems: The battery. A lot of systems use ordinary lead-acid units to absorb energy generated through solar panels or wind turbines. The......

Removal of radioactive World War II dials in eight acres of storage warehouses in Columbia, Marietta, Maytown and Mount Joy could cost nearly $2 million, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA has ordered an "emergency removal response" at eight old warehouses owned by Strub......

After weeks of legal wrangling, federal officials have been permitted to access the warehouses belonging to Strube Inc. of Marietta that contain radioactive material.According to Roy Seneca, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection, Strube agreed Tuesday to allow EPA......

The feds are stepping in to take over removal of radioactive instrument dials from seven Strube Inc. sites in western Lancaster County.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officially took on the job at the request of the state Department of Environmental Protection after Strube Inc. of......

A Lancaster County firm is under 24-hour surveillance by representatives from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency while radioactive material is removed from seven of its warehouses.Strube Inc., of Marietta, was ordered Monday by the state Department of Environmental Protection to remo......

For students in Joshua Shortuse's environmental science classes at Ephrata High School, studying the water quality of the Cocalico Creek was an eye-opening experience. "Most of the pollution comes from things you can't see," observed senior Austin Lorah. "It surprised me ......

Agents from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency took water samples Tuesday from a Penn Township hog farm, eight neighboring wells and a residence served by Lititz Borough Water System. The samples will be tested for nitrate and fecal coliform, EPA spokesman David Sternberg said Thursday. H......

Between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, household waste increases by more than 25 percent. Food waste, shopping bags, packaging, wrapping paper, bows and ribbons — it all adds up to an additional 1 million tons of trash per week in America.Lancaster Free Market founder Erin McSo......

Matthew Colip has seen the United States from a perspective few people ever experience.He has slept in the desert in Utah, spent a night in a teepee in Colorado and passed over the 11,312-foot Monarch Pass of the Continental Divide using only the power of his two legs, all in the name of c......

Students of fine metalworking at Hempfield High School are learning something old is sometimes better than something new.Nathan Boring, a student art teacher at Hempfield, has begun participating a project called Radical Jewelry Makeover. In it, metal students discover recycled jewelry is ......

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has a cleanup plan for the Superfund site near the Susquehanna River in Columbia.Essentially, time and Mother Nature will do the work from this point forward, and the EPA will monitor their progress at the former UGI Columbia Gas Co. property on Fro......

(AP)Penn State University has reported a minor leak of "slightly radioactive water" at its Breazeale nuclear research reactor but said Thursday the leak poses no risk to workers, the community or the environment.Workers on Tuesday discovered water leaking from the pool in which the reactor......

Bond — Richard Bond returned to the county Tuesday four decades after graduating from college here.Calling it a triumphant return may be an understatement for Bond, a 1969 Elizabethtown College grad who was named chief executive of Tyson Foods 15 months ago.Speaking before a g......

(AP)Gov. Ed Rendell, who has been outspoken on the need to limit emissions of global warming gases, has not delivered on a promise to come up with his own strategy for Pennsylvania.Administration spokesmen would give no reason for the delay, other than to say a plan is still being worked o......

Members of Lititz Borough Council announced at Tuesday night's meeting they were ending an investigation into the construction of a hog-farm operation west of town in Penn Township and into allegations a borough employee made false statements about it.Council looked at several issues s......

Col. Xavier Stewart bent down next to the "victim" and applied a deep red substance to her skin.He took his time, careful to make it appear the "victim" was in fact injured. When satisfied, he stood up and went back to his microphone."Anybody else need any m......

A national environmental group has named PPL Corp.'s coal-fired Brunner Island power plant one of the 50 dirtiest power plants in the country.In its report, "Dirty Kilowatts," which was released Thursday, the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project ranked the Brunner Island......

Several states, including California, along with Australia, Canada and the European Union are moving towards a phase-out of incandescent lightbulbs. "Change a Light, Change the World" is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's slogan on www.en....

We've all done it at one time or another — polished off a soda and tossed the plastic bottle into the trash without much thought.But how many people realize that one particular action will take centuries to undo?Scientists say a single plastic bottle could take up to 700 y......

Back in the good old days, all a person had to do to feel good on Earth Day was pick up some litter or plant a tree. Nowadays, Earth Day activities are all about reducing our "carbon footprint."Most of us didn't even know we had one, let alone understand why or how to reduce ......

A county agency has made history through its market approach to battling global warming.The Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority announced Thursday it had recorded the first-ever trans-Atlantic exchange of project-based greenhouse-gas reduction credits, also called "carbon cre......

(Miami Herald)Hard to believe, but they're at it again. After 2002, when a National Cancer Institute statement reporting no link between abortion and breast cancer was changed by the Bush administration to say evidence of a link was inconclusive; after the administration cut language on glo......

How the lawsuit is resolved could affect Lancaster County’s air, considered among the worst in the United States for the amount of airborne soot residents breathe year-round.

The Bush administration and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency failed to uphold federal law when they refused in Sep...

Armstrong will give undetermined millions of dollars to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to compensate EPA for the costs, court records show. The settlement between the company and the agency, ending three years of negotiations, was signed Friday by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Judith K. Fitzge......

The county got more bad news Tuesday when the U.S. Department of Environmental Protection reported that Lancaster is one of 22 counties in the state that likely will not meet national health standards regarding fine-particle pollution.

That means the county has an excess of fine p......